For 5 weeks now I have been having singing lessons with my cousin who has been to university and drama school to study performing arts musical theatre. She is currently working on my weaknesses with me so that I can improve my vocal ability. She has taught me about scales and different techniques and how to use thick folds and thin folds and what they are. She also told me that I am a soprano.
At the moment Kellie (my cousin) is helping me with my solo that I am going to do at our end of year show for btec performing arts. We are currently looking at options and trying out songs. So far we have worked on 'Popular' from the Westend musical Wicked. We chose this because it is cheeky and fun and drama is uncluded, also I love the musical Wicked so it ticked all the boxes. The other song that we have worked on is 'Home' from The Whiz. So far both of them are going really well, I've worked on Popular more and have started to add drama to it and I am really enjoying it. I have become more confident when singing than I was and I am working on diction and opening my mouth cos I don't do either when I sing at the moment.
I did a little bit of research on the two musicals too so that I am familiar with what I'm singing about and what the shows are about.
Wicked
Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students at Shiz University: the blonde and very popular Glinda and a misunderstood green girl, Elphaba.
Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda's unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power with Elphaba;s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences for her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fullfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
The Whiz
In this version of the classic story, based on the smash Broadway musical, Dorothy is a shy 24-year-old Harlem kindergarten teacher who is brought by a snowstorm to the mysterious land of Oz, a sprawling, decaying and dangerous megalopolis that resembles the physical charateristics of New York City. This retelling of the tale includes various urban settings, extreme sadness and melancholy and features themes of rising above one's background and the expectations of others.
I will upload a video soon of me singing Popular at school. This will be part of my evidence for Auditioning for Musical Theatre too.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Street dance classes (Friday class and Monday class)
On a Fridays I teach twelve 9-11 year olds street dance in Chipperfield in a dance studio. On Mondays I also teach seven 11-13 year olds street dance in Bovingdon. I love teaching both classes and we are both working towards some very exciting shows. Firstly I will talk about the Monday clas, then I will talk about the Friday class.
I have been teaching classes for 9 weeks now on a Monday and we have already done so much! At the moment we are working towards performing at the btec performing arts variety show. I have mixed a few soundtracks up for the routine and so far the dance is amazing. I choreographed the first 30 seconds and then I split the 7 into a group of 3 and a group of 4 and they had the chance to choreograph their own piece of dance for 15 seconds each. Then I have choreographed the last bit for them.
The girls are amazing, they have done street dancing before too so therefore I found it easier choreographing a dance that they will find exciting and not boring. I found it easier because I don't have to hold back on the challenging moves as they are capable of learning them. To make sure that I am not going to fast I go over the moves quite a few times before I let them dance it to music, that way it is in their head and they won't forget it hopefully. I've used two upbeat songs for the music, this is so that it is lively and will get the audience excited about the dance and ther girls find it up to date and gets them in the mood to dance.
I used different formations for the dance, this way it doesn't get boring, it gives more opportunities to do something different and imaginative in the dance and all the dancers have a chance to be at the front or middle. I am going to give the girls a questionnaire to do after the performance to see how they are finding the classes so I can see what I could improve about the classes for the next term. After the variety performance I also hope that they can perform on the Chipperfield common during half term for the Jubilee celebration party. I need to ask the owner of Blackwells in Chipperfield if this is possible too. I will video the performance and put it up on this blog and evaluate it too. I will also get some pictures of the rehearsal process. I will obviously ask the parents permission to do this.
For the Friday classes I have also taught the children many things do with street dance and it is going really well. As the children are younger than the other class that I do, I have to restrict what we do as the 8 year olds would find certain moves too difficult for them. So far I have noticed that I have to take things slowly with them as they take longer to learn a dance or a dance trick. There has been a issue that I've started to notice though however, I have noticed that the 11 year olds are more advanced that the younger ones and I'm finding that it is hard to teach them all the same thing as the older ones will find it too easy if i make the move suitable for the younger ones, but the younger ones, find it too hard if I make the move suitable for the older ones. Therefore I decided to create a questionnaire for them to fill in so that I can see what they think about the classes.
I have picked 4 feedbacks that I got from the questionnaire, each one is anonymous and I picked one for each age from 8-11.
1) How old are you? 8
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes, definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before? yes
4) Would you like the classes to be easier or harder? harder!
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes!
7) Have you learnt to be confident when dancing? yeah!
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (she ticked the box Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? no!
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? nothing i think it's already a brilliant street dance class
1) How old are you? 9
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before? yes
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? too fast but only a bit
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked the box Yes, I'd like to get involved more)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? no
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? to go over the moves and dances more
1) How old are you? 10
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before? no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? a tiny bit harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? maybe for the older people to go in a different class or group
1) How old are you? 11
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before? no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? maybe for the older people to go in another group
From all the questionnaires and especially these 4, I can see what needs to be improved for when we come back after Easter holidays. It is easy to see that the older people would like to be in a different group to the younger people. I could tell that this was an issue as I can see the younger students holding the older ones back a bit. Therefore to ensure that this issue is delt with, after half term I will do a second class on a Friday which will mean that the older students will be in a different class the younger ones, because not only is it about age, it's about ability and I can see that the older students are more advanced and I can see the real difference between the 8 year olds and the 11 year olds. I've spoken to the older students and I've told them the conclusion that I've come to and they are happy about this. This has also made me more confident that all the students will be happy about this and they won't worry about holding each other back.
I also noticed that from the questionnaire, that the students would like the classes to be harder, this will happen as I haven't finished choreographing their dance for the performance on the common. I will make it harder but will go over it slower so that they all understand. For when I devide the class up into two classes the level of difficulty will change for both. The older group will be harder and the younger group will only be a little harder, this is because I have see how they dance and not all of them manage to get the hard moves, it takes them 2-3 weeks to manage and by then it's time to move on, which is why it has been hard to teach the classes lately.
I have also had to make alternations to the soundtrack as although there isn't any swearing in them, I feel that an 8 year old would prefer to dance to a more upbeat and popular song rather than a song they haven't heard of and is not familiar with, this task will be fine as I don't find mixing soundtracks difficult.
I am looking forward to the near future and what these classes can do for me and my experience as a teacher, as well as the children's experience as a street dancer. I hope to give both classes more opportunities too so that they have something to look forward to, E.g performing at shows. I will make the improvements to my classes as soon as possible but for obvious reasons I can't change everything all at once, it will be a gradual process. I have learnt a lot from the questionnaires and it has helped me evaluate myself and my classes.
I have been teaching classes for 9 weeks now on a Monday and we have already done so much! At the moment we are working towards performing at the btec performing arts variety show. I have mixed a few soundtracks up for the routine and so far the dance is amazing. I choreographed the first 30 seconds and then I split the 7 into a group of 3 and a group of 4 and they had the chance to choreograph their own piece of dance for 15 seconds each. Then I have choreographed the last bit for them.
The girls are amazing, they have done street dancing before too so therefore I found it easier choreographing a dance that they will find exciting and not boring. I found it easier because I don't have to hold back on the challenging moves as they are capable of learning them. To make sure that I am not going to fast I go over the moves quite a few times before I let them dance it to music, that way it is in their head and they won't forget it hopefully. I've used two upbeat songs for the music, this is so that it is lively and will get the audience excited about the dance and ther girls find it up to date and gets them in the mood to dance.
I used different formations for the dance, this way it doesn't get boring, it gives more opportunities to do something different and imaginative in the dance and all the dancers have a chance to be at the front or middle. I am going to give the girls a questionnaire to do after the performance to see how they are finding the classes so I can see what I could improve about the classes for the next term. After the variety performance I also hope that they can perform on the Chipperfield common during half term for the Jubilee celebration party. I need to ask the owner of Blackwells in Chipperfield if this is possible too. I will video the performance and put it up on this blog and evaluate it too. I will also get some pictures of the rehearsal process. I will obviously ask the parents permission to do this.
For the Friday classes I have also taught the children many things do with street dance and it is going really well. As the children are younger than the other class that I do, I have to restrict what we do as the 8 year olds would find certain moves too difficult for them. So far I have noticed that I have to take things slowly with them as they take longer to learn a dance or a dance trick. There has been a issue that I've started to notice though however, I have noticed that the 11 year olds are more advanced that the younger ones and I'm finding that it is hard to teach them all the same thing as the older ones will find it too easy if i make the move suitable for the younger ones, but the younger ones, find it too hard if I make the move suitable for the older ones. Therefore I decided to create a questionnaire for them to fill in so that I can see what they think about the classes.
I have picked 4 feedbacks that I got from the questionnaire, each one is anonymous and I picked one for each age from 8-11.
1) How old are you? 8
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes, definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before? yes
4) Would you like the classes to be easier or harder? harder!
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes!
7) Have you learnt to be confident when dancing? yeah!
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (she ticked the box Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? no!
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? nothing i think it's already a brilliant street dance class
1) How old are you? 9
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before? yes
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? too fast but only a bit
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked the box Yes, I'd like to get involved more)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? no
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? to go over the moves and dances more
1) How old are you? 10
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before? no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? a tiny bit harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? maybe for the older people to go in a different class or group
1) How old are you? 11
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class? yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before? no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder? harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right? just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class? yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing? yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already? maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be? maybe for the older people to go in another group
From all the questionnaires and especially these 4, I can see what needs to be improved for when we come back after Easter holidays. It is easy to see that the older people would like to be in a different group to the younger people. I could tell that this was an issue as I can see the younger students holding the older ones back a bit. Therefore to ensure that this issue is delt with, after half term I will do a second class on a Friday which will mean that the older students will be in a different class the younger ones, because not only is it about age, it's about ability and I can see that the older students are more advanced and I can see the real difference between the 8 year olds and the 11 year olds. I've spoken to the older students and I've told them the conclusion that I've come to and they are happy about this. This has also made me more confident that all the students will be happy about this and they won't worry about holding each other back.
I also noticed that from the questionnaire, that the students would like the classes to be harder, this will happen as I haven't finished choreographing their dance for the performance on the common. I will make it harder but will go over it slower so that they all understand. For when I devide the class up into two classes the level of difficulty will change for both. The older group will be harder and the younger group will only be a little harder, this is because I have see how they dance and not all of them manage to get the hard moves, it takes them 2-3 weeks to manage and by then it's time to move on, which is why it has been hard to teach the classes lately.
I have also had to make alternations to the soundtrack as although there isn't any swearing in them, I feel that an 8 year old would prefer to dance to a more upbeat and popular song rather than a song they haven't heard of and is not familiar with, this task will be fine as I don't find mixing soundtracks difficult.
I am looking forward to the near future and what these classes can do for me and my experience as a teacher, as well as the children's experience as a street dancer. I hope to give both classes more opportunities too so that they have something to look forward to, E.g performing at shows. I will make the improvements to my classes as soon as possible but for obvious reasons I can't change everything all at once, it will be a gradual process. I have learnt a lot from the questionnaires and it has helped me evaluate myself and my classes.
Rock Challenge 2012
On 22nd February, my school showcased our rock challenge performance at Stevenage. We weren't competing on the night because we are Premier Team and we are competing with other Premier schools at Portsmouth in June. I have been involved with rock challenge this year in 3 different ways. The first one being that I am helping out with costumes and I designed and then made a costume for one of the fairies for Titania's dance. I also helped construct Titania's costume. Another way of being involved is that I helped choreograph the street dance routine for Oberons army and I helped the students in that dance learn and practice it. The final way of being involved is that I am also performing in the production. As I am a street dancer I am in the Oberon's army dance which is the only dance in the performance that is street style, I will also be in the last scene too when the dancers all come on stage together for the last dance.
Here is a picture of everyone dancing together in the main hall in the morning.
As rock challenge video everyone's performance, we got a DVD of our performance so that we could see what needed to be improved and what went well, just basically what it looked like. The performing arts students and Miss Dolan went through what we thought needed to be improved so that it is ready for Portsmouth. When I saw myself dance I noticed that although I was in time, my arm at one point was at a different angle to those around me therefore when we rehearse we will be strict on angles of arms and legs so that we look in unison because as we are representing an army, everything needs to be inline in the dance. I also noticed that when I put Puck's magic fingers on behind one of the tree formations it can be seen, therefore I decided that I would put them on offstage so that nothing is untidy or gives anything away. Looking at the other dancers I noted a few things that could be improved dance wise and space wise that can be rehearsed after Easter holidays.
When I was at Stevenage it was a good atmosphere and I felt like our school had something to show when we did our rehearsal on stage because we are a Premier team and had to show the other schools why we deserve to be a Premier team. The rehearsal went great for me therefore I didn't have any nerves for the actual performance. As I have a role of being a choreographer I was helping other dancers in my dance with their confidence and moves incase they wanted to go over anything, this also reasured me that I knew what I was doing and so did my peers in my dance. When it got to the actualy performance, I started on the wrong leg therefore my arm was wrong and my confidence was brought down imediately. I picked up the rest of the dance as this only happened when we were marching forward into our formation. To ensure that this doesn't happen again I will make sure that we are all marching before the set opens for us to march forward, therefore it won't happen to me again and it will prevent it from happening to any of the other students in my dance. Thankfully you couldn't see my fault on the camera as there was smoke and fairies in front of us as we were marching forward.
As part of our b-tec course we have to construct a costume that is made well and good to perform in. As rock challenge is a big part of school (Kings Langley) our teachers thought it would be a great idea for us to make some of the costumes for the performance, which will be performed in both February and June/July. Our theme is A Midsummer Night's Dream and we have been asked to construct the costume for the fairy scene. We were all very happy when given this costume task as we can make them really pretty, girly and big so that they wil impress everyone when the fairies dance on stage.
Here is a picture of a group of characters, their costumes were made by students too.
I cannot wait until we get to Portsmouth, it will be so good if we manage to take on board all the improvements that we need to make and I'm sure I'll be more nervous as it will be for the real thing and when I'm nervous I tend to try harder and do better.
Here is a picture of everyone dancing together in the main hall in the morning.As rock challenge video everyone's performance, we got a DVD of our performance so that we could see what needed to be improved and what went well, just basically what it looked like. The performing arts students and Miss Dolan went through what we thought needed to be improved so that it is ready for Portsmouth. When I saw myself dance I noticed that although I was in time, my arm at one point was at a different angle to those around me therefore when we rehearse we will be strict on angles of arms and legs so that we look in unison because as we are representing an army, everything needs to be inline in the dance. I also noticed that when I put Puck's magic fingers on behind one of the tree formations it can be seen, therefore I decided that I would put them on offstage so that nothing is untidy or gives anything away. Looking at the other dancers I noted a few things that could be improved dance wise and space wise that can be rehearsed after Easter holidays.
When I was at Stevenage it was a good atmosphere and I felt like our school had something to show when we did our rehearsal on stage because we are a Premier team and had to show the other schools why we deserve to be a Premier team. The rehearsal went great for me therefore I didn't have any nerves for the actual performance. As I have a role of being a choreographer I was helping other dancers in my dance with their confidence and moves incase they wanted to go over anything, this also reasured me that I knew what I was doing and so did my peers in my dance. When it got to the actualy performance, I started on the wrong leg therefore my arm was wrong and my confidence was brought down imediately. I picked up the rest of the dance as this only happened when we were marching forward into our formation. To ensure that this doesn't happen again I will make sure that we are all marching before the set opens for us to march forward, therefore it won't happen to me again and it will prevent it from happening to any of the other students in my dance. Thankfully you couldn't see my fault on the camera as there was smoke and fairies in front of us as we were marching forward.
As part of our b-tec course we have to construct a costume that is made well and good to perform in. As rock challenge is a big part of school (Kings Langley) our teachers thought it would be a great idea for us to make some of the costumes for the performance, which will be performed in both February and June/July. Our theme is A Midsummer Night's Dream and we have been asked to construct the costume for the fairy scene. We were all very happy when given this costume task as we can make them really pretty, girly and big so that they wil impress everyone when the fairies dance on stage.
Here is a picture of the main character from the army scene and main character from the fairy scene. Students constructed these for the show.
Here is a picture of a group of characters, their costumes were made by students too.I cannot wait until we get to Portsmouth, it will be so good if we manage to take on board all the improvements that we need to make and I'm sure I'll be more nervous as it will be for the real thing and when I'm nervous I tend to try harder and do better.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
GCSE Dance
In a few weeks I am doing my dance exam for GCSE. In one of my dances I choreographed a piece that shows how women are represented in the world today. I did this based on a poem by Edwina Matthews.
As soon as I read this poem I knew straight away that I liked the idea of power coming from within and even if you are not physically strong, a strong mind is often just as good. I decided I wanted to focus on a Woman’s fight for equality in an often male dominated environment.
As soon as I read this poem I knew straight away that I liked the idea of power coming from within and even if you are not physically strong, a strong mind is often just as good. I decided I wanted to focus on a Woman’s fight for equality in an often male dominated environment.
I took Beyonce’s message from her video and song of ‘If I were a boy’ and thought about the way in which a woman working in the environment like the police force would need to be strong willed as well as strong minded to succeed and hold power over her male counterparts.
As it is a dance, I still kept the idea of travelling towards an end point on the stage, but wanted to use the space from the floor upwards to symbolise that as a woman, you have to learn to grow upwards from a low opinion from others, and I liked the idea of my dancer reaching for the sky, symbolising there are no limits when you have power and strength. This also tied in nicely to the dynamics of the dance, utilising a mixture of soft and strong dynamics, I concentrated on a word bank of ‘flowing’, ‘strong’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘graceful’ to help me realise the sense of development of my dancer.
There are 3 sections to my dance; section 1 is about celebrating the femininity of my dancer and I chose to choreograph a contemporary piece of dance that was fluid and effortless in its execution. Section 2 is about the starting point of feeling as if my dancer has something to prove above and beyond being just a woman and how her strength and power come from more than just her body. To help with this I decided that I wasn’t going to dance my piece, but instead I started to choreograph for a dancer within my group who is a very strong gymnast as well as a contemporary dancer. This allowed me to really play around with the strength and power of the piece within the dynamics. Section 3 is about utilising that strength and power and showing a dramatic change within the pace of the piece, demonstrating that women can still be beautiful and yet strong whilst remaining graceful.
The main change I made throughout my choreographic process was mainly to do with my dancer. I wanted to dance my own choreography but I realised pretty soon into the initial stages of rehearsal that I needed to see my piece as a story and that meant having the right dancer for the part, like a professional dance company director would have. I needed a strong contemporary dancer with a gymnastic flair, which then allowed me to really present my idea of a powerful woman within a male dominated world.
Beyoncé is a very powerful woman and so her song appeared to fit perfectly with what I wanted to achieve with my message. The music allowed me to experiment with pace and momentum. Although it is constant in speed throughout, there are moments within the lyrics and control of the voice where she gradually gets louder.
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